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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently